Abstract: Mangrove forest is a special wetland forest growing in the inter-tidal zone of tropical and subtropical regions, playing important roles in windbreak, promoting silt sedimentation, resisting extreme events such as cyclones and tsunamis, and protecting coastline, etc. The total area of global mangrove forests is about 152000 km², only accounting for 0.4% of all forest area. There are about 230 km² mangrove forests in China. The mangrove forests in the tropics have an average carbon storage as high as 1023 Mg·hm^-2, and the global mangrove forests can sequestrate about 0.18-0.228 Pg C·a^-1. In addition to plant species composition, a variety of factors such as air temperature, seawater temperature and salinity, soil physical and chemical properties, atmospheric CO₂ concentration, and human activities have significant effects on the carbon storage and sink ability of mangrove forests. Many approaches based on field measurements, including allometric equations, remote sensing, and model simulation,  are applied to quantify the carbon storage and sink ability of mangrove forest wetland. To study the carbon storage and sink ability of mangrove wetland can promote the further understanding of the carbon cycle of mangrove wetland and related controlling mechanisms, being of significance for the protection and rational utilization of mangrove wetland.

Key words: mangrove forest, carbon storage, carbon sink, affecting factor.